Louisiana native's parents ran a local newspaper. Sam cleaned presses, sold ads; then studied at Louisiana Tech. Worked at IBM, Honeywell. Founded supercomputer operator University Computing with $1,000 in 1963; $57 million (sales) by 1968. Added investments in insurance, oil, restaurants. Bought controlling interest in arts-and-crafts chain Michaels Stores 1982; shares bought out by Bain Capital and Blackstone Group for $6 billion. Sold Sterling Software to Computer Associates in 2000 for $4 billion.